Begrimed
by Boriqua-chan
Summary: "She's blind as a bat. Looks like she doesn't even know how to brush her own hair. And can you blame her?" "No, I guess you can't. But she could at least use shoes, couldn't she?" *light cussing* *"Barbarian" sister fic*


**This is Barbarian's sequel…somewhat, I guess. **BlueLion **inspired this one with his/her review. (Sorry, I checked your profile and couldn't find anything on your gender.) This is my first time writing a Taang, so…yeah. I've also never done the blind perspective before, so it might be a bit OOC. Don't go easy on me; criticism helps…so long as it's done nicely.**

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><p>"Look at the poor girl," a nobleman's wife whispered. She didn't disserve the title of "noblewoman." Had Toph not had superhuman hearing, there could have been a chance that she wouldn't have heard the woman. Then again, this was <em>Toph<em>. "She's blind as a bat. Looks like she doesn't even know how to brush her own hair. And can you blame her?"

Toph clenched her toes. She could feel the vibrations of the pebbles around her foot rising and falling as she did so. The sound of the bones in her toes cracking was loud.

"No, I guess you can't," another woman said. Her voice was distinctly feminine; she sounded like a two-year-old girl with her high-pitched tone. "But she could at least use shoes, couldn't she?" The vibrations of a teacup landing on a saucer resounded in Toph's ears. "Look at her, she's _filthy_! One would think that the Avatar's girlfriend would at least take pride in her appearance, even if she herself can't see it."

Toph frowned. The only filthy things about her were the dirt caked on her feet and the bottom hems of her dress. She'd made sure everything else was clean; she could feel her skin, and it was spotless, just how her mother had taught her. It was the one time she'd followed her mother's instructions intentionally. Usually, she kept dirty just to spite her mother, but today she'd made sure she was presentable, for Aang's sake.

Toph pressed her lips together and dug her clenched toes into the ground. She'd give herself a good toe-picking when she got home. Or was on Appa. Or maybe she'd get Twinkletoes to give her one. She loved when Aang gave her a good foot rub. It was an amazingly sweet sensation.

The first woman laughed haughtily. What was so funny about this? "Poor Lord and Lady Bei Fong—putting all their time into raising a girl that's worth nothing to society," she asserted.

Toph suddenly remembered the woman to be named Riko Hamaguchi. She was the wife of the Earth Kingdom's Third Tear Prime Minister. Ironic, considering there was more crime in the Third Tear than there was in the whole world put together, even with the help Aang was so desperate to give. And no wonder the Third Tear was so bad! The poorest section of the Kingdom and here was its noble family, wearing clothing most kings couldn't afford. Toph could feel the softness of the cloth on earth. Who in hell knew how expensive that was!

"The Avatar could have learned earthbending from any common earthbender, despite the girl's claims to be the greatest earthbender ever," the second snorted. This one's name was Kyung Soon Jo. Her name meant honored and mild. Hah! What a joke! Honored and mild Toph's foot!

Speaking of feet…

Toph stood up. The force of her weight landing on the floor made the small pebbles around her jump and the dent she'd left in the ground under the silk blanket she sat on smooth out. She stormed towards the two noblewomen. There were three of them, yet only one had stayed silent.

The black-haired earthbender stamped her feet in the ground before the noblewomen. One was from the Fire Nation, one from the Earth Kingdom, and the silent third from the Northern Water Tribe. The vibrations of the earth gave told Toph that the Fire Nation's "Lady" Hamaguchi was holding in her laughter. No doubt she was staring at her grime-caked feet.

The young Lady Bei Fong pressed her lips together and dug her toes in the ground. "Now listen here, you snobby freaks!" she shouted, her blind sea-green eyes staring at the vibrations of the condescending women. It was so very obvious that she was glaring. "Which of you can bend steel?" There was no movement. Toph crossed her arms over her chest. She'd developed from the time she was twelve. While she was still petite, her every movement gave way to strength and power. She was slight and short, with arms as fragile-looking as flower petals. However, they were far from fragile. "Which of you traveled from country to country, under threat of _death_? At age _twelve_, no less?"

Toph waited. The ground's vibration showed that not one of these _snooty_, _snotty _women was about to open their mouths.

"Anybody? Anybody?" the Blind Bandit asked, waving her hands in the air, careful not to bend anything—like those stone columns holding up the nobles' house over there—into anyone's face. "_Nobody_? Really? Not one? No one here was a part of the gAang?" she questioned sarcastically. "That's what I thought," Toph snorted. "I'm blind, not _stupid_! My feet are dirty because I need to _see_! Which of you has ever gone a day sightless—let alone sixteen _years_?"

The vibrations of the earth turned from shocked to shamed.

"Who here would have left their pampered lives to help the Avatar in a quest that could get you _killed_?" Toph asked.

The bigmouthed Fire Nation noblewoman started to say, "It wouldn't—"

Toph's eye twitched. Her mouth widened. " 'It wouldn't have been hard'? Is that what you were going to say? It wouldn't have been _hard_? Half the time, we didn't know were we were going to _sleep_! Not to mention that Snoozels was never a good hunter-gatherer. Half the time, we didn't know if we were going to _eat_! So don't you go mouthing off about how 'it wouldn't have been that hard'!"

The Blind Bandit's blank-eyed glare was taken off the women's general direction. "Twinkletoes!" she shouted, mouth exaggeratingly wide. The sixteen-year-old's vibrations were within hearing distance. Of course the Avatar heard his girlfriend. Whether or not he wanted to answer her, however… Toph frowned. "Damn it, Twinkletoes! You dragged me to this place, now you can take me out of it!" she yelled again, stomping towards her boyfriend. When it felt as if he were trying to hide, she screeched, "I know the meeting's over, you wimp!"

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><p><strong>I don't like the way it ended. I think I could've done better. I was just so eager to post this…<strong>

**Anyway…read and review, my brethren/sisteren/kinspersons!**


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